What Could Go Wrong?

Have y'all been following the latest on the NSA (National Security Agency), FBI, Obama and Verizon? Or, Obama, NSA and Skype, Facebook, Gmail, AOL, Apple, PalTalk, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo? In my opinion, the Constitution has been trampled on by all President's since before I've been voting. Oh sure, they've all had such good reasons...war, terrorism, peace, profit...the list makes me gag. It's like saying there's a war on drugs. Dave used to say, "The more times someone says something the better the likelihood it's all a lie." Have we heard the truth in our lifetimes? I submit the answer is NO, unless you've been reading your Bible. Orders have been issued to invade privacy, ignore Constitutional rights and now that they're being found out, the spin cycle is in action.

The Washington Post reports that PRISM, in place since 2007, is a direct invasion of our privacy AND A FELONY except, until yesterday, the public knew nothing about it. Seems we believe Microsoft when they state, "we respect your privacy". Ummm, what privacy would that be, Microsoft, because you were the first to sign up for information mining with PRISM. 

You think because you're a liberal, voted Obama and "aren't doing anything wrong" you're safe? Or do you think you're safe because  your mobile phone supplier isn't Verizon? Think again, poppet, because denial isn't a river in Egypt. This information is either being gathered, or in process of being gathered, from ALL communications companies.

For years, Natural News and InfoWars have reported on data mining, information gathering and our Constitutional Rights being trampled. Obama is good with all this and says, "secret NSA surveillance is a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats" as reported in The Guardian. The Democratic chair of the Senate intelligence committee, Dianne Feinstein, said the Verizon court order has been in place for seven years. "People want the homeland kept safe," she says and I add, "Yes, safe from YOU and your ilk."

Lest you think I'm anti-Democrat (which I am) you must also know I'm anti-Republican. The cretins have sold us out and there's not a man, or woman, among them who won't sell their eternal soul for filthy lucre which, news flash, they won't be taking with them when they go to hell. Or heaven should such a miracle happen.

Bush and his minions put The Patriot Act into action and it's been used since to commit felonies, ignore the Constitution, run rough shod over We, the People and, IWB (idiots we be), we've been allowing it. Republican Jim Sensenbrenner is "troubled" by the revelations of the Guardian. Sensenbrenner is also one of the authors of The Patriot Act and now the chickens are coming home to roost. He says he's written Eric Holder, Attorney General (hasn't he resigned yet?) to question "if US constitutional rights were secure." 

HELLLLLLO, let me help you with that, Jim. No, our rights are NOT secure because the Constitution is no longer secure and it's due, in part, to YOU and everyone who signed on with Bush's The Patriot Act. Rarely, are the ACLU and I in accordance but in this instance, we're on the same page. According to the Guardian article, the deputy legal director at the ACLU, Jameel Jaffer said, "From a civil liberties perspective, the program could hardly be any more alarming. It's a program in which some untold number of innocent people have been put under the constant surveillance of government agents.
"It is beyond Orwellian, and it provides further evidence of the extent to which basic democratic rights are being surrendered in secret to the demands of unaccountable intelligence agencies." 

The Guardian article states Verizon gives to government spy agencies *the phone number of both people on the call, *the geographic location of the Verizon phone user, *duration of call, and *unique identifiers which allow the phone to be tracked. 

This information may be used by the NSA to reveal *your name, *home address, *social security number, *driver's license number, *credit history, *employment and *criminal history.

People, these are felonies and Obama says, "it's justified". The abuse of power is rampant and justified by our elected officials. David Rockefeller, Bilderberg member, said, "We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order." For more about the Bilderberg organization, see here, here and here.

Dear God. Have mercy. 

Blessings ~ GOD, He's our only hope ~

P. S. Vic, MonkeyWrangler, says check into the following for encrypted information and storage: Moxie Marlinspike's TextSecure and Red Phone are now operating as Whisper Systems. Also, PGP now GnuPG. 

P.S. 2 Moxie Marlinspike's recent article speaks to insecure communication, tools such as Red Phone and someone in Saudi Arabia who seeks assistance with a "surveillance problem". Marlinspike is light years ahead of me in the high tech department (for one thing, he helped write the code for Twitter) and I don't claim to understand 80% 90% of what he's saying. I do, however, understand enough to know I don't like this brave new world. I don't like it a'tall.

Can You Hear Me Now?

 ~ vintage, sturdy, still working ~

Dear Mr. Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon President and CEO:

Today I wrote a letter to the State Corporation Commission of Virginia wherein I outlined, in detail, the problems and lack of service we've encountered with Verizon in the last eighty days. While I won't include the enclosure here, I will show the letter. By the way, I did mail a copy of the letter and enclosures to you earlier today when I mailed the original to the SCC and some details have been abbreviated due to the public nature of blogs.
As an aside - telephone service was restored sometime after 1:30 today. How do I know? Because my Mother telephoned and left a message telling me a family member had passed away. Thankfully, service was restored so I could receive this message.

State Corporation Commission of VA

Public Utility – Telephone
P.O. Box 1197
Richmond, Virginia 23218

Dear Terry @ the State Corporation Commission of VA:

Since 11 January 2010, our telephone service has been either disrupted, in the form of static or dropped calls, or non-existent. As of today's date, we have no service at all. There's no dial tone, no static...nothing. We e-mailed Verizon a request for restored service and Verizon replied we would have service restored 10 April 2010 by 7:00 p.m.

FDB, my husband, and I have made dozens of complaints to Verizon since 11 January 2010. We understand our neighbors have also made complaints so this has been an on-going, yet unresolved, problem. Enclosed are copies of the notes I've kept since January 11, 2010.

Essentially, Verizon would take our complaint, pass it down the line and then clear the complaint! They would tell us, “we have no record of your service being disrupted.” We've spoken with Verizon employees (Rodney, Michelle, Kelly, Jesus and others) at their 1.800 number, sent many e-mails, spoken with technicians (Dave, James and others) in the field and on 1 March 2010 I called Verizon Customer Advocacy and spoke with Miss Campbell. Miss Campbell was rude and indeed typified the type of “customer service” we've “enjoyed” with Verizon since day one.

Miss Campbell said she would do the following:

-place a claim on the telephone number so we don't get dropped
-would put in a ticket complaint for a technician to schedule a repair call. As an aside,when I told her when other Verizon employees had also put in a “ticket complaint for a technician to schedule a repair call” that Verizon would,at that point in time, drop the initial complaint service call. She admitted that was standard operating procedure.
-Once the problem is corrected, she would place a credit to our account but not before. I told here this was in direct opposition to what we'd been told the month before by Verizon employee Kelly who had, supposedly, given us a credit on our bill. Miss Campbell said there was no such record.

March 1, 2010 – called VA State Corporation Commission and spoke with Terry. She said to send her a letter outlining dealings with Verizon.

March 3 2010 – Verizon employee Miss Redwood called and said service would be restored by Wednesday, March 3.

March 3 – Miss Redwood called and asked about service; told her it was still “intermittent” with lots of static and dropped calls. She said she would call back in two days.

March 6 – Miss Redwood called, told her phone service is no better; haven't heard from Verizon since.

For eighty (80) days worth of troubles, Verizon has given us ten (10) days credit on our intermittent, disruptive, dead phone “service”.

As the matter stands today, March 30, we expect to be without telephone service until Verizon can “correct” the problem on April 10 at 7 p.m.

We have tried to work with Verizon and am sorry they have placed us in a position to make a formal complaint to the State Corporation Commission of Virginia.

What can now be done?

Sincerely,

Sandra B.

xc: Ivan Seidenberg
Verizon Chairman and CEO

P. S. When we've spoken to Verizon employees they have asked for other telephone number whereby they can contact us. We have no other telephones that work in our remote, rural valley. Cell phones work about ten (10) miles up the road but not at our home. There is, virtually, no way to communicate, either incoming or outgoing, except by our land line telephone, which, as this letter explains, hasn't worked correctly since the beginning of the year.

Blessing ~ the phone worked for a while today ~
Thanks for visiting Thistle Cove Farm,
Sandra

RANT: Verizon, Thou Are No Friend

Dave and I are at it hammer and tongs with Verizon...again and are entering Month III. We've had intermittent phone "service" -and I use the word lightly- since January 11, 2010. Some days we've spent four and five hours on the phone with Verizon representatives who assure us, "I'm sorry and we'll resolve your problem immediately." Liar, liar, pants on fire...did you ever say that as a child?

Now it's common knowledge, because I've said so time and again, I was raised in a rather black and white environment. As children, if we told a "fib" it was called a lie. If we told a "little white lie" it was called a lie. If we lied, we got a spanking. So, if a + b = c then Verizon employees have been telling lies like there's a prize for telling lies because we're still having phone troubles. As in...no dial tone, dropped calls, static so bad on the line you can't hear and this is annoying, frustrating, anger inducing and just plain mean of Verizon employees. I'm reminded of II Timothy 4:14 where it says, "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works". You make the leap from "Alexander" to Verizon, won't you?

How bad is it? Well, I've kept written records but suffice it to say when now we call...as we've done earlier today...to report the problem...AGAIN...Verizon says, "we have no record of any problems going further back than a couple of weeks" yet three Verizon employees have told us we would "receive a credit from 11 January for lack of service". Earlier today, I contacted the Verizon "Customer Advocacy" representative who told us she would place an order for service but we wouldn't receive a credit until service had been restored. She, like most Verizon employees with whom we've dealt since January 11 was rude, belligerent, kept interrupting and passed the buck. Status quo, Verizon.

So, I'm doing what Verizon suggests on the back side of their monthly bill. I'm writing a letter to the State Corporation Commission and filing a complaint. In fairness to us, Dave and/or I have spoken with, at the bare minimum, a dozen Verizon employees who ALL, save for James, a technician,and one woman, share the same problems as the "Customer Advocate" Miss C., and, save for the two mentioned, ALL will receive poor marks regarding their attitude, rudeness, lack of communication style, interrupting rough shod while the customer, me, was trying to speak and for being belligerent. Then, I'm copying my letter, putting it into a blog entry AND making hard copies and taking to all my neighbors to suggest they go and do likewise. You see, we've ALL had problems with lack of phone service since the same time. We've also had problems with our rural mail carrier and feel embattled on every side by those who are being paid for services NOT provided! We were even told by a Verizon employee that when we called in a service problem, once that report was turned over to a technician, Verizon records would drop the initial complaint so that it was no longer on record!  Suuweet! NOT!

Verizon, nor any public utility for that matter, does not like their customers to write letters to the State Corporation Commission. If a company, such as Verizon, receives too many letters of complaint, they are fined and it goes against their public record.Also, if you write a blog entry, such as this one, use the company's name as much as possible as it comes up high on engine searches. BTW, written letters are ever much more effective than a telephone call or e-mail. Earlier today, Miss C., "Customer Advocate"...anyone see the oxymoron here?...told me, "If you do send a complaint to the SCC all they will do is forward it to me and I'll have to take care of it." Miss C. also said, "Credit cannot be attached to your bill until the problems are corrected and no, we won't stop your service for not paying the bills in question." The flames of Hades are being fed and are growing hotter and hotter with each telephone call to a Verizon employee. I just finished speaking with a woman at the VA SCC and she said, "No, the complaint comes to me and I'll handle it; it doesn't go to Verizon."

If one does a search with the words "Verizon service complaints" you could live to be a thousand and never have time to read them all. It appears Verizon is the absolute King of nasty companies who, it seems, trains their employees in the ways and means of saying, "I'm sorry..." with absolutely no sincerity whatsoever; trains their employees on how to, effectively, lie; trains their employees on how to, effectively, get the customer off the phone as fast as possible. Hey, I've not even been in one of their training sessions and bet I'm batting a thousand!

Lest you think I want special treatment, I do not. I want Verizon to tell the truth, fix the telephone line, give me the credit they have promised and to play nice. In short, do what they say.

VA State Corporation Commission
Division of Communication; Attn: Terry
P.O. Box 1197
Richmond, Virginia 23218

Some suggestions if you're having difficulties with a public utility or other company. There are several places on the i-net where one can obtain the actual telephone number to speak to a human being at various companies! No, really, it's true! Get Human, Dial A Human and Talk to a Human are three places to find numbers to speak to human beings and not get thrown into the computer loop. Be polite, but FIRM; keep records, take names, dates and times and follow through.

Then pray for them as did Paul for Alexander.

P. S. Verizon just called and said, "the problem isn't with your phone but with the line" to which I replied, "that's what I've been telling you for two months". The Verizon representative went on to say, "the line will be fixed by Wednesday" to which I replied, "so you say". The Verizon representative went on to say, "I understand you're thinking of writing a letter to the SCC" to which I replied, "No, I'm not". The Verizon employee said, "Oh, you're not?!"
"No," said I, "I'm not thinking of writing a letter, I am writing a letter, am working on it as we speak and have already spoken with the SCC representative and she's expecting my letter this week."
Hmmmm...and just think...Verizon gave me the idea when I looked at the back of their bill.
Thanks, Verizon!

Until next time,

Blessings ~ websites that assist in getting humans, not computer loops ~ the time and means to file complaints against companies wanting to be paid for services not rendered ~

Thanks for visiting Thistle Cove Farm,
Sandra